baby rambutan

the long awaited pinkberry has opened its doors…
the first and last time we had pinkberry was two years ago when we visited family in California. there were long lines, in a chic and tony suburb of LA, and my brother said we might bump into a celebrity or two (did not ).


with the red mango open in Boston, and another branch opening soon nearby again, i think we’ll be able to satiate our tangy frozen yogurt desires, anytime we want. *sigh*

a reward for my shopping companion

pinkberry
94 Derby St 209, Hingham, MA 02043
Derby St.–ok i can’t bear to say it but it’s at the *gulp* Derby Street–Shoppes

or, properly, S. M. B. R. save my baby rambutan.
the month of August is almost gone and i haven’t written a word here. vacation, yes, we were away for a short while, but also it seems my heart isn’t here, or quite up to it…
i’ve been checking in almost daily though, and the past two days were quite anxiety-ridden due to baby rambutan having disappeared. i pestered the hosting center and they could not figure it out. late yesterday it finally came back up online and they had no idea what caused the glitch.
needless to say i have to think about how to preserve everything i’ve written here. i imagined all sorts of scenarios and died a thousand deaths, so to speak, from the anxiety.
i’ve decided that it’s not worth it…i’ve got to do something. my baby deserves better.

to banish the stress here’s a comforting pudding–very much like “baby” food, but i mean that in a good way. one mouthful of the custardy-milky-bready pudding, it almost made me feel young again.


butter (for the dish)
4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 large baguette, cut in 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 1/2 cups (2 pints) fresh raspberries
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Butter a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Butter the bread slices on one side. Arrange them buttered-sides-up in overlapping layers in the baking dish, tucking half the raspberries between the slices. Scatter the remaining raspberries on top.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and lemon rind. Stir in the cream, milk, and vanilla. Pour the mixture evenly over the bread. Press the bread down into the custard with the back of a spoon. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes or up to 1 day.

3. Set the oven at 350 degrees.

4. Set the baking dish in a roasting pan. Pour about 1 inch of hot (not boiling) water into the roasting pan. Bake the pudding for 50 to 55 minutes or until it is lightly browned and almost set. It should quiver very slightly in the center.

5. Remove the pans from the oven and lift out the baking dish. Let it cool for at least 15 minutes to let the custard set (it will continue to cook a little).

6. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve warm or cold.

–from the Boston Globe Food Section, July 28, 2010

it was his 75th birthday yesterday. we siblings decided to celebrate his life and cook some of his favorite foods.
i thought i’d make him a birthday cake. daddy loved chocolate cake, and my three kids all honored his memory with big slices of melt-in-their-mouths deep dark chocolate cake layered with rich chocolate ganache and raspberry jam.

“to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is not to die…”
recipe, from Bon Appetit, June 2010, follows: (more…)

Foodbuzz, Electrolux, and Kelly Ripa are doing it again! and i am determined to join in this time, with the Top 9 Takeover banana split theme.

on this day, Foodbuzz Featured Publishers gather together and feature the classic banana split, and for every entry Foodbuzz will donate $50 (up to $5,000!) to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.
here’s the link, if you’d like to help out and donate even more to this crucial cause:
www.kelly-confidential.com/foodbuzz.

i played around with the classic formula though, and made caramelized plantain bananas the centerpiece, with vanilla ice cream, sweetened coconut sport strings (macapuno), fresh sweet mango bits, crushed pineapple, and honey-roasted cashew nuts, in homage to the tropical weather
we’re enjoying right here, now! in Boston, and to my recent impromptu trip to the Philippines….

my tropical style…

the classic, with a recipe for chocolate fudge sauce, here…

a bit wrecked….
the mission, and i did choose to accept it, was to conjure up a carrot cake by Wednesday.
it was supposed to be homemade, and not have walnuts, and not have any cream cheese touching it anywhere.
and since it was The Birthday Boy requesting it, i happily acquiesced (though i did flirt with the idea of ordering one from the European bake shop…just for a second).
i thought i’d make something different from the usual, especially looking for a recipe for carrot cake that starred only carrots: no pineapple, sweet potato, coconut, apple/applesauce…just the carrots.
whenever i stumble upon a recipe that says “best ever” it’s like a “throwdown,” a challenge that i take really personally.
so. a just-carrot recipe, check.
now for the frosting: green tea mousseline cream? chestnut whipped cream? lemon buttercream?
finally, getting down to the wire, i firmly decided on white chocolate ganache.
and it was a roaring success! The Birthday Boy, er no, the Birthday Man i should say, was terribly pleased.

“best ever” carrot cake, based on a recipe from Cakes, 1001 Recipes from Around the World, Reader’s Digest, 2003. (more…)

this cookie and the fact that it has made it to the baby rambutan is a testament either to my hoarding instinct, or to my chocoholic proclivity.
or both.
i’ve had this recipe stored away for twenty years! wow. in Tagalog, “grabe.”
i also have a stash of chocolate that i “need” to use up. anyway, isn’t it firmly established by now that chocolate is REALLY REALLY good for you? and that you have to eat a certain amount of walnuts everyday? i don’t recommend eating more than one of these cookies a day, you’re on your own after you’ve baked these.

for the love of chocolate walnut cookies ( a taste i first encountered when my Ma brought home a box of Mary See’s chocolates from San Francisco) i dug out this nasty looking guillotine-like contraption, the Mezzaluna chopper which i’d seen Nigella Lawson using to chop up herbs and nuts and various other ingredients. i barely use it, i think it is the most dangerous tool i have in my arsenal, worst than the Benriner….

by the by, why does BBCAmerica only show all the ghastly old reruns of Gordon Ramsay now? i mean, i admire the guy and all his recipes, just not the swearing and yelling. but isn’t there anything else from the BBC UK that is allowed to be shown in America? just griping…

from the Boston Globe, November 1990, on a feature about the best cookies from gourmet shops.
8 ozs. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 & 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
tiny pinch salt
1 & 1/2 tsps. vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup walnut pieces not too finely chopped
2 cups semisweet large chocolate chunks
1 cup large milk chocolate chunks
(total chocolate: 14 ounces)

preheat oven to 350F.
line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone.
cream the butter and sugar and salt until light and well blended. stir in vanilla and egg. stir in flour and soda and mix well. fold in nuts and chocolate.
form into generous tablespoons of batter and press onto baking sheet.
bake 12 to 15 minutes until they are lightly golden and edges are browned. makes about 2 & 1/2 dozen cookies.

i thought i’d make something light to accompany the kids’ special request for dinner of roast semi-boneless beef ribs…

i decided on angel food cake, flavored with lime zest and drizzled with calamansi juice glaze.
it was like a cloud! like eating lime-flavored clouds!


it is truly an easy cake to make, considering… (and! easily adaptable to any citrus fruit/s of your choice.)
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This post was entered into the “Grow Your Own” roundup, hosted this month by House of Annie.

i spent a week in California to hang out with my parents and siblings–our kuya (older brother) flew in from Manila with a suitcase full of goodies.

i’ve had this recipe printed out and magnetically attached to the fridge for quite a while now. i saw it on a PBS special about Mexico, hosted by Tyler Florence, who is just about the only food network hunk chef i watch nowadays. he made it with lime zest.

in my carry on bag though was a small basket of these, handpicked from a garden in Camarillo, Ca.
(there were also saba bananas, pickled green mangoes, polvoron, and Ricoa flat tops. i tried to look as innocent possible when a little leak of pickled mango juice was detected in the overhead bin. )

two quite rare ingredients blended together in an easy flan recipe…there was a bit of an overflow from leftover mix that i poured into a little ramekin and that i had–all by myself.

(more…)

have you? had red velvet cake? have you been curious about it at all?
(more…)

The Birthday?
our fat little furry cat has turned 4. still as finicky as ever–we’ve had a helluva time finding canned food that he’ll actually eat up, instead of us scraping them off all dried up and shriveled from the bowl.
for now, it’s anything sliced, never ground, not pate, nothing minced! AND, Fancy Feast only.

fancy cat. HRH, Emperor BaoBao, Jack Bauer, Napoleon of Maine, and Massachusetts. fancy cat food for him, brownie, a la mode, for us (kid-suggested King Arthur Flour brownies + Breyer’s extra creamy vanilla ice cream).

and the crepe-y fail i am writing about, only to appeal to anyone out there, yoo hoo, help?!, with a friendly recipe for Saigon sizzling crepes (banh xeo). it is a savory crepe made of rice flour, turmeric, curry and coconut milk, filled with ground pork, mushrooms, shrimp and bean sprouts.

it’s just that the memory of the first bite i had, many many years ago, cooked by a co-teacher’s Vietnamese student, is so tugging at my heartstrings, and belly, that i long to replicate it at home.

mine was a complete and utter disaster, which my family courageously attempted to eat, out of pure love i think…i snatched away the platter after seeing their politeness dissolving into grimaces.
could it be because i used a bit of mung bean flour in the crepe batter? ( saw an online recipe which included steamed/mashed mung beans–it looked delicious!)
hmmm, i am retreating from this challenge for a while, and ordering a take-out portion from my friendly neighborhood pho place for now.
a successfully cooked crepe, and tips for its creation, is pictured here.
my #2son was very wary, suspicious, no! he was outright scared!– the next day when he saw me opening up the Vietnamese cookbooks once more.
“er… more Vietnamese experiments, mom??”